Zero in on Carbohydrates and Carbohydrate Counting

On January 20, at 9pm ET, I have the distinct pleasure of being the featured guest on Diabetic Connect’s Diabetes Education weekly Twitter chat (#DCDE). Come, let’s dialog and share! We’ll focus in on the strategies and tactics you (or your caregivers) use to carb count the foods you eat — whether you prepare and eat those grams of carbohydrate at home or at a restaurant.

Carb counting doesn’t focus on the amount of carbohydrate you eat. It focuses squarely on accurately assessing the grams of carbohydrate you eat to accurately dose your rapid-acting insulin (that is if you take insulin). Carb counting is made to sound simple but it’s hardly so. This is just one of many reasons why controlling glucose levels is oh so challenging.

I’ve done a good bit of writing over the years to help people with diabetes learn about foods that contain carbohydrate and to help them gain skills and strategies to count these carbohydrate grams. One of the books I’ve written, published by the American Diabetes Association, is Complete Guide to Carb Counting. You’ll find plenty of tips and tricks in this book.

To assist you with carbohydrate counting when you eat restaurant foods, I’ll point you to my soon-to-be-released (~mid February) book Eat Out Eat Well – The Guide to Eating Healthy in Any Restaurant, along with the companion app, Eat Out Well—Restaurant Nutrition Finder from American Diabetes Association. The app, which will be available on iTunes or Google Play by mid-February, will contain up-to-date nutrition information for thousands of restaurant foods.

You also may want to read a series of blogs posts about carb counting I wrote for Suite D – OmniPod’s (Insulet) blog for people with diabetes. These posts focus on how to build your personal food database, and include carbohydrate counting tips for home and restaurant eating.

Most importantly, remember to be logged in and on Twitter for our 1/20/15 chat at 9pm ET. Go to the Diabetic Connect Twitter handle and use the hashtag #DCDE at the end of your tweets. Bring your strategies, insights and questions about the ins and outs of carb counting. I have tips and tricks to share with you. I bet you have your share as well … so let’s share!